LTA Promotes Great Britain Captain Leon Smith to be Head of Men’s and Women’s Tennis

Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith has been given additional roles by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), now becoming head of men’s and women’s tennis, and also retains his Davis Cup post.

He was already in charge of men’s tennis since 2010. Smith takes over as head of women’s tennis at the LTA following Nigel Sears’ recent departure to become coach of Serbian former world number one, Ana Ivanovic.

Smith told BBC Sport that he would not be setting any bold targets for his tenure.

The LTA has been criticised in the past for setting targets such as how many players it expected to have in the top 100 on a certain date. 

However, Smith did reiterate: “What I’ve learned is not to give targets. We’ve done that before – it’s not the way to go. If we focus on the process, these could be exciting times.”

Currently, Andy Murray is the only men’s British player in the ATP top 100, while Elena Baltacha, Heather Watson and Anne Keothavong are in the WTA top 100.

The shake-up of the look of the LTA’s Performance team now means that Smith will be working alongside a number of coaches – not necessarily known outside of tennis, ending LTA CEO Roger Draper’s experiment with big-name coaches on large contracts.

But the new head of men’s and women’s tennis denied that the experiment was a failure.

Smith added: “I don’t know if it’s a U-turn but it’s certainly good to see young British coaches given opportunities to work at the top end of the game. A lot of people say it was a waste of money but I totally disagree, absolutely not. The results might not have been there but those ‘big names’ contributed to what we’re seeing today.”

Former British number one Greg Rusedski has also agreed a new four-year deal, after guiding Great Britain to their first Junior Davis Cup title.